CARE staff and partners in Japan have been busy in the three months since the devastating earthquake and tsunami - some highlights of our response below....  More details will be forthcoming this week at http://care.ca.

TOTAL: 1,960 Beneficiaries

CARE’s Feeding Programme and food distributions reached almost 2,000 beneficiaries on a regular basis. CARE provided hot and nutritiously balanced meals daily for disaster survivors in evacuation centres in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture. We distributed food items such as rice, soup stock, vegetables and soy sauce to survivors living in their homes in Miyako City. In total, CARE provided 36,990 meals).

NON-FOOD ITEMS:

TOTAL: 7,997 beneficiaries

Almost 8,000 people in evacuation centers received essential relief items such as plates and bowls, sanitary items, towels, soap, shampoo, mattresses, sheets, mosquito coils and insect repellent. In June, CARE plans to distribute summer blankets, boats and generators.

PSYCHOSOCIAL ACTIVITIES:

TOTAL: 1,330 beneficiaries

More than 1,300 beneficiaries, mostly elderly people, were supported with psycho-social activities to re-establish community connections, help overcome trauma and promote social integration and healing.

Ethiopia drought and food insecurity update

CARE Ethiopia is currently responding to the drought and food insecurity emergency in the regions of Afar and Oromia (Borena, East and West Hararghe), which are the most affected areas in the country. The on-going humanitarian interventions focus on food aid; on water and sanitation such as water trucking, distribution of water treatment chemicals and water points rehabilitation, hygiene awareness; assistance for livestock such as animal feeding and local capacity building and awareness.

To date, CARE Ethiopia has reached more than 125,000 people through the on-going response and is currently scaling up its response to address critical needs in nutrition and livelihoods protection. CARE Ethiopia is also actively preparing for floods that are very likely to affect the Northern part of the country later this year.

• So far, only 36 % of the drought/food insecurity (regional) appeal has been funded and donors have expressed interest in increasing their allocations to the region 
• In Ethiopia, drought in the South and South East part of the country has exposed 2.5 million people to acute food insecurity.

More needs to be done, you can help at http://care.ca !

Cote D'Ivoire update...

Our CARE staff in Cote d'Ivoire are reporting that security is improving despite pockets of resistance and instability in the West and in Abidjan (Yopougon). Banks are re-opening, so salary payments to civil servants has resumed in Abidjan and in other cities. The CARE rapid assessment in the West revealed urgent needs in shelter, hygiene kits and early recovery supports for returnees and existing IDPs. CARE has distributed water purification kits to IDPs in Dukoué and continues ensuring garbage collection in Dukoué, Man and Bouaké.

Cote D'Ivoire

Our staff in Côte d'Ivoire are sharing developments with us as events unfold. On April 11^th Ouattara delivered a speech on TV calling for peace and reconciliation and asked Gbogbo’s forces and militias to stop fighting and looting. The Police and Gendarmerie called on their teams to resume work, and Prime Minister Soro also called all youths to end the fighting. Ouattara mentioned that Gbagbo will be judged for the crimes that occurred under him, but he will be treated with dignity as former President and his rights and physical integrity will be respected.

Despite these developments, the delivery of humanitarian assistance remains difficult.  Our staff report that  carjacking, looting, targeted ethnic violence and robberies continue to be reported in Abidjan.  Critical needs remain unaddressed around water, sanitation and health.  CARE is planning to distribute food to about 50,000 people in Bouake, Korhogo, Man and to 10,000 host families.  In Korhogo, CARE provided well purification training to focal persons and distributed water purification kits to just under 1,000 people in Man city.


We are collecting funds to help those affected by the crisis - http://care.ca to donate! More information available at http://care.ca/main/index.php?en&C%C3%B4te_dIvoire

Thoughts on Delivering Assistance Amid Conflict

I was asked to address the Group of 78 in Ottawa this week, with my thoughts on how CARE manages to deliver humanitarian assistance in countries riven by conflict, with a specific focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.  My speaking notes are reproduced here....

Delivering Assistance Amid Conflict

            This is a very timely subject, not just for Afghanistan and Pakistan.  As I was preparing for this presentation, I received the most up to date list of countries where security risks have crossed our "travel approval threshold" where we signal that additional caution is required - the list includes Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt, Haiti, Mali, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.  That is not to imply that all the countries NOT listed are without risk - it is just that in places like Congo, Kenya, Chad, Sudan, Liberia, etc., we are still within our "normal" parameters.

            Given that CARE is present in 87 countries around the world, and that for CARE Canada at least, humanitarian assistance accounts for often 50% of the $100-150 million in assistance we deliver every year (out of $800 million delivered by all CARE Members), no one should be surprised that our country presence list reads like the top end of the Failed States Index.  In fact, the last time I compared our operations to the Index, we were present in over 60% of those deemed "failed and failing" and in 20 of 28 of the very worst.

            We do however, draw hope from the fact that many of the places which were high on our list in years past have improved, I recall that Rwanda, Bosnia, Mozambique, Angola and others in past years as offering many similar challenges of delivering assistance amid conflict, but have moved on (largely) to post conflict and development paradigms.

            It is in this context, of working in countries that have moved beyond conflict, while still working in many that have yet to emerge, or are seeing new violence, that it is critical that we do reflect on what we have learned, and that we do make the effort to share these lessons with whomever will take the time to listen - so thank you for your presence here today.

            The central question I was asked to address is "how can an international humanitarian agency operate in this environment" with a specific focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.  While there are some specific modalities for this region, there are other fundamental, cross-cutting operational principles that underly all our humanitarian work.  I will outline those first, and return to regional specific ideas in a moment.

            First, we approach our work with the deep commitment to working with the poorest and most vulnerable populations we can reach.  This often drives us into areas others are evacuating (we joke that a DFAIT travel advisory for Canadians to get out is our signal to go somewhere), and keeps us in conflict areas for the long term.  We are in our 65th year now, and have maintained a program presence in Afghanistan since the early 60s, and off and on in Pakistan for almost as long.  But beyond a commitment to the poorest and most vulnerable, we strive to achieve, or at the very least contribute to, a "program approach" where we design our programs, and work with partners in such a way to ensure that we are addressing "Human Condition x Social Position x Enabling Environment."  And we do this with a particular focus on the needs and opportunities faced by women and girls.  We have not always had this approach nor this focus on women and girls, but what we have learned over the years is that this combination of looking at projects in the broader context, looking for projects that fill gaps in the equation (since a zero any variable will yield a null value), and prioritizing actions that empower and react to the needs of women and girls offers the most likely combination of actions to help poor and vulnerable communities (including men and boys).

            Second, our ability to access poor and vulnerable populations is critical.  Without access, we are useless, and access is not easy, and it seems to be getting more difficult, in more places.  Our strategy here has also been refined over the years, and we are spending a surprising amount of time and money on ensuring we can access populations in need (estimate at least $1m per year in direct costs across CI, excluding insurance, oversight and many project specific expenses).  We have dedicated safety and security staff, staff training courses, physical costs associated with our operations that have been necessitated by the places we work and the often specific targeting of aid workers by insurgents and rogue actors.  Our reaction has been a conscious choice of SOFT security over HARD security. By soft I mean developing a doctrine and practice of "Integration and Acceptance" as opposed to "Walls and Wires" (and almost never guns). It is not either or, we often make use of Hard Protection techniques, but as they are a direct and indirect barrier between us and the people we are trying to help, we try to minimize their use. We have accepted armed escorts at times, but normal only when the local authority makes it a condition for our work.

            The critical aspects of an "integration and acceptance" strategy are that local communities know who we are, know our staff by name, face and reputation, and they accept our presence, and in turn, offer us their "protection".  This protection take many forms, from warnings to us about danger, to vouching for us with strangers, newcomers, etc., to even brokering our release if we are ever detained.

            The third important part of how we operate in conflict environments relates to a conscious decision and program stance to strengthen civil society in conflict settings.  Much international press and comment is focused on the abilities and inabilities of states in these contexts, and in Afghanistan in particular, we all heard for years that the international community was in Afghanistan to "strengthen and build the legitimacy of the Karzai Government".  In those exact words.  CARE would never say that is our purpose, and that is one way we ensure we are able to operate throughout coo tries in conflict.  We will likely outlast the government of the day (we've been doing it for 65 years) so partisan approaches have absolutely no place in our work.  This doesn't mean we don't work with Governments, far from it, some of our most successful work has been when we have enabled local communities and their governments to work effectively together, but our approach starts with civil society, and engages other actors as needed to achieve our program goals.  Imagine a 2x2 grid, where we seek to work in the “magic quadrant” where both state and civil society capacities are strengthened, but know that our default position is to focus on CSO capacity first.

/\           ||  Strengthening capacity of civil society		Magic Quadrant…
	Strengthening capacity of the state ------>

             The Second Question I was asked to address was "how do you work with, or stay distant from - military forces".  This is a perennial question, and I personally have been "dogmatic in my pragmatism" on this question, and CARE has been (at times) very active in its engagement or criticism of military forces, often depending on the context.

For example, in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places where either Western or National forces are present, we have accepted the presence of military actors, but have also gone to great lengths to try to instill some role clarity, to encourage military forces to let us build the schools, as they are often only building targets, to dissuade military forces from acting like NGOs (civvies and LandCruisers) and do all they can to avoid blurring the lines that must exist between military and civilian actors.  If you recall my earlier remarks on "integration and acceptance" the presence of military actors, doing what we do but for very different reasons, is a direct threat to the viability of our safety and security strategies.

            There are a number of challenges though, the constant rotation of military staff taxes our ability to provide constant briefings....., but the ability to provide the briefing in the first place depends on the military being ready and willing to accept it from people they normally stereotype as naive, sandal-wearing peaceniks.  The fact that CARE maintains more staff, and keeps them safe, in more hot spots than the Canadian military hasn't always translated in to a willingness to listen.  When it has, we have taken the opportunity with relish and will continue to do so.

Finally, a few words on what - exactly - we are doing on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  In Afghanistan, CARE has made building local capacity to respond to emergencies one of our priority interventions - maybe we can work ourselves out of at least part of our job!  We have a long-standing focus on building sustainable livelihoods, particularly among vulnerable women/widows in and around Kabul.  This involves many local NGO partners who deliver training, employment, market links etc.  Education has always been high on our list, with CARE supported girls education Programs going back to the Taliban days (integration and acceptance made this possible, but it was limited compared to the scope of girls education today).  Finally, we are active on the policy front, as we work to ensure that our Afghan program includes HC, SP, EE elements at all times.  Our "looking for leadership" report was effectively adopted by the Senate Committee on Human Rights in their report on Afghanistan, and was endorsed by the Globe and Mail as the right strategy for Canada post troop withdrawal next year.

            In Pakistan, CARE reestablished operations in June 2005, anticipating building a development program, but October 2005 earthquake changed that.  As we emerged from that experience, we refocused the program to work entirely through local partners, but the floods of August 2010 changed that, as we opened some direct relief Programs as partner capacity was exceeded.  Seems to be a trend, what we expect in Pakistan seems to change fairly rapidly - but we persevere with our flood relief, reconstruction, local capacity building, and hopefully, some day we seek to undertake cross-border capacity building among CSO and CBO organizations on both sides of the Afghanistan / Pakistan border.

Thanks for your attention, and I welcome your questions. 

Kevin McCort

President and CEO

CARE Canada

March 22^nd, 2011

Follow me as I take the Walk in Her Shoes Challenge – 6kms / 8,000 steps a day!

Dear Friends,

This year, I am not climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro (though 17 others are taking the Climb for CARE Challenge this year - http://climbforcare.ca/ for details).

What I am going to try to do may be even harder, in practice if not in theory!  CARE has launched the Walk in Her Shoes Challenge, where our staff, volunteers, donors, friend etc., are all trying to experience the typical day for the average woman and girl in a developing country.  That means I need to walk 6kms (8,000 steps) a day, which is what women and girls need to do to gather water, firewood and other essentials to meet the basic needs of their families and survive.

I will be trying to walk 6kms every day for one week – starting today and ending March 8^th on International Women’s Day – to gain a better, personal understanding of what this really means.  We are partnered with ParticipAction to promote this, as it is also a great way for Canadians to assess and measure their own levels of activity.

To watch my progress, to find out more, or to find out how you can participate and get your own pedometer, feel free to click on this link (http://bit.ly/eaOnZz) or send me a note.  I will be tweeting as I go, and while I don’t want to be making excuses before I start, I do think it will be tough!  Not that I’m afraid of the exercise, but I (like many of you I’m sure) spend so much time at a desk, or driving to/from work/school that walking 8,000 steps will be a real challenge.  If I really had to walk 6km every day, I’m sure I wouldn’t have enough time for many other activities…, oh wait, maybe that is the message within the challenge… Wish me luck!

Regards, 

Kevin

P.s. Twitter details to the right…

Refugees from Cote D'Ivoire in Liberia

I spent a year in southern Mali, and visited Cote D'Ivoire at the time (late 80s!).  CARE has been engaged as this crisis unfolds and changes for the past few years. Refugees into Liberia is a relatively recent development, and continues to cause us great concern.  Below is the most recent report from our office in Liberia...  Kevin

Aid urgently needed to Ivorian refugees in Liberia

Monrovia, Liberia (Feb. 25, 2011) - CARE warns that the mostly forgotten crisis in Côte d’Ivoire has the potential of escalating into a regional humanitarian disaster unless a larger-scale aid effort is put into place.

In the shadow of events in Northern Africa and the Middle East, the political crisis and violence in Côte d’Ivoire continues. The potential humanitarian implications on the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people in the region remain a deep concern.

Tens of thousands of Ivorian refugees are putting vulnerable host communities under unbearable strains in eastern Liberia. With the rainy season quickly approaching, there is an urgent need to get medicines, food, shelter, water and other essential items to the border areas.

Every day hundreds of people are crossing the borders into neighbouring countries, most of them into Liberia, where some 40,000 refugees had arrived as of mid-February. The situation is changing rapidly, with the number of refugees crossing the border growing by the day. An escalation of violence in Côte d’Ivoire could increase the influx significantly, with the UN estimating the number could reach 100,000 by April.

The delivery of the humanitarian assistance remains insufficient and slow, in large part due to limited resources. Without larger scale efforts to assist and protect refugees and host communities, the humanitarian situation will deteriorate quickly. CARE Liberia has been among the first agencies to respond on the ground in the border areas.

CARE Country Director Hubert Charles stresses the need for essential assistance to be put in place before the rainy season.

“Once it starts raining in May or June, transport will be next to impossible. The food, medicines, plastic sheets, jerry cans and supplies we manage to bring in by then, the latrines we construct and wells we rehabilitate, will save lives and prevent people from getting sick. Our challenge is to communicate the urgency of this situation at a time when several important events are happening elsewhere on the continent. If the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire escalates while rain prevents aid from getting to refugees, we’ll have a very serious situation on our hands,” says Charles.

Local communities in the Liberian border area are struggling to find shelter, food, water and other essential items for the newly arrived. There is a need for medicines to prevent diseases such as cholera, measles and yellow fever from spreading. Malnutrition is becoming increasingly common.

As always, children and women are particularly affected, and CARE’s aid distribution primarily targets women-headed households. More than 55 percent of registered refugees in Liberia are women, and 62 percent are under the age of 18. The risk of sexual and gender based violence increases as communities become overcrowded, and the UN has received reports of rapes. Women’s health and protection should be a part of any first response to an emergency, and CARE is making sure that all activities take these concerns into account.

While there is a great urgency to the situation, CARE Liberia also emphasizes the need for long-term assistance to host communities. Host communities are in many cases as vulnerable as the refugees themselves. CARE will assist with income-generating activities, such as training in agricultural techniques, distribution of seeds and tools and establishing saving and loans groups.

“These are communities that have still to recover completely from 14 years of civil war and conflict. With a sudden influx of tens of thousands of refugees, they are put under a lot of strain. We’re seeing that in many cases the refugees are in better health than people who receive them. Host communities need a lot of support and they need it quickly,” says Charles.

For more information contact:

CARE Liberia’s Country Director, Hubert D. Charles (in Monrovia):

hubert.charles@co.care.org  +231 (0) 679 79 58

Anders Nordstoga, Media Officer (in Eastern Liberia):

Anders.Nordstoga@care.no, +47 90 84 24 58

What CARE is doing

• CARE distributed blankets, buckets, cups, soap and sanitary bags to 1,500 households (9,000 people) in Nimba county, 70 percent of which were headed by women, as well as promoting awareness of sanitary risks, such as the spread of waterborne diseases.  
• CARE participates actively in the coordination and joint planning of aid distribution on a local and national level, particularly in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene.

What CARE plans to do

• Construct 100 double latrines in six communities in Nimba County. Promotion of hygiene and sanitary awareness.
• Rehabilitate or drill a total of approximately 40 wells within the next six months. (Each well will benefit approximately 500 people.)
• Assist with construction of shelter and distribute plastic sheeting to 2,000 households (12,000 people). 
• Distribute jerry cans, bucket, cups, soap, washing powder, towels, blankets, tooth brushes, tooth paste, mats, mosquito nets, sanitary towels, cooking kits, blankets, sleeping mats and other essential equipment to 2,000 households (12,000 people). 
• The risk of sexual and gender-based violence is fully considered in all activities. We will ensure that both women and men help identify safe and accessible sites for water pumps and sanitation facilities. CARE seeks to contribute to the reduction of violence against women, girls, boys and people at high risk in a crisis situation through sensitization at community meetings, setting up complaints mechanisms and other prevention tools.
• Partners and staff will also receive training on promoting social cohesion and peaceful conflict resolution.

About CARE: Founded in 1945, CARE is one of the world's largest humanitarian aid agencies. Working side by side with poor communities in 70 countries, CARE helps empower people to address the greatest threats to their survival. Women are at the heart of CARE's efforts to improve health, education and economic development because experience shows that a woman's achievements yield dramatic benefits for her entire family. CARE is also committed to providing lifesaving assistance during times of crisis, and helping rebuild safer, stronger communities afterward. CARE Liberia’s programming is mainly focused on food and income security, with complementary projects in women’s economic empowerment, access to water, sanitation and sustainable agriculture. CARE has a total staff of 40 in Monrovia and Gbarnga, in Bong County.